Lecture 31: Landscape Ecology

Question 1

Define landscape

Answer 1

A heterogenous area consisting of disitnct patches

Question 2

Define landscape ecology

Answer 2

Examining patterns and interactions between communities that make up large areas

Question 3

What factors shape landscapes?

Answer 3

Landscapes are created by changes in response to geological processes, organism activity, climate, and fire

Question 4

Define glacial ages

Answer 4

periods of variable cool and warm global temperatures that lasts millions of years

• alternation of glaciations and interglacial period

Question 5

Define glaciations

Answer 5

cold periods of about 60-90 thousand years within a glacial age

Question 6

Define interglacial period

Answer 6

short warm periods that last 10-40 thousand years between glaciations in a glacial age

Question 7

Explain pleistocene

Answer 7

• the most recent glacial age that began around 2.5 million years ago

Question 8

What are examples of landscapes created by glaciers?

Answer 8

• Moraine: accumulation of debris
• Esker: long ridge of sand and gravel
• Kame: mound of sand and gravel and moves with the melting of a glacier
• Drumlin field: elongated hill formed by glacial ice acting on a moraine
• Kettle: lake created by piece of detached glacier melting into a depression

Question 9

What are some glacial landforms created via erosion?

Answer 9

• u-shaped valleys
• corries: bowl shaped hallows

Question 10

Glacial vs river erosion

Answer 10

Glacier: u-shaped valley
Stream: v-shaped valley

Question 11

Define talus

Answer 11

large rock piles pushed aside and left behind by glaciers

Question 12

Define glacial till

Answer 12

mixed rock material left behind by glaciers

Question 13

Explain nunataks

Answer 13

Glacial refugia in which a mountain peak is surrounded but not covered by glaciers

Question 14

Explain the edge effect

Answer 14

When there are changes in the physical environment of an ecosystem’s edge, it affects adjacent ecosystems:

• reduces habitat area
• change in abiotic and biotic properties
• decreases in isolation

Question 15

Explain the edge effects in the rainforest

Answer 15

• forest edges are hotter and drier
• intense solar radiation
• tree mortality is higher: overstory decreases, while understory increases
• decreased animal diversity

Question 16

What did the study of the movement of small organisms discover?

Answer 16

Animal movement decrease with habitat fragmentation

Solution: habitat corridors that connect similar habitat types